Needed: Better Antidote to Political Infections
Reader comment on item: Unleash the Iranian Opposition[, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq]

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jul 12, 2007 at 19:02

Do we not already have our hands full in Afghanistan or Iraq? One of the unacknowledged (depending on with whom one discusses the subject) objectives of the incursion into Afghanistan was to establish a new government without Taliban influenced excesses, and in Iraq, to stabilize the region without the Baathist regime in order to quell the extraterritorial ambitions of the local leadership, thereby keeping foreign relations in the region manageable. Right.

Let's see. Al Qaeda has just been recertified ready to inflict new terrors. Pakistan has rent the banner of the Red Mosque and in retribution, yet another jihad is declared. Oh, and let us not forget that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still waving his knife over the map of the Middle East and how do we desire to respond to that?

Like injecting a dead virus serum in order to combat a live infection, we are told to prime and insert an Iranian anti-regime faction to mix it up with the Islamic Revolution of Iran. Yeah, that's the ticket.

The only problem is that the MEK is not as sublimated as one might hope, even in spite of their more presentable recent appearance in the public forum. Their political aspirations are as viable as a live virus as any infection might be, and that spells trouble. Surely as we Americans try to find a way to extricate ourselves from Iraq without pulling the problems of the region out with us like barbs caught under the skin, we should see this is a replay of meddling in misunderstood politics for which there is no immediate solution.

It would be better for the United States and others to prepare for a Middle East meltdown. It will be involving more than Iran. We need to be prepared to respond to what we can see, better than to try once again a plan of interdiction based on a faulty perception of what might happen and where. It is scary, but not nearly as scary as trying the wrong thing again and having to respond to not only the original threat, but the aftermath of the wrong action as well. Unleashing the variable of the MEK in Iran cannot do anything but introduce more problems, from which a reaction from the Islamic Revolution cannot be good, for anyone.

In the final analysis, Iran may be trouble, but by themselves, they are a carrier of the infection of Middle East politics, but the source of the virus is not isolated yet. The MEK is very unlikely as an antidote.

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